Our Boys' Seattle Favorites

Visitors and natives like to joke about the rain. I've lived here since I was 13 and am used to the joking and the rain. And, though I'm proud to be part of a family with 5 generations born in super-sunny California, I now find Seattle's frequently gray skies soothing.

Whether it's a sunny or a cloudy day, the city is spectacularly beautiful and I feel so lucky to live here. Everywhere, one has access to incredible vistas that include backdrops of mountains and water, with boats, bridges, and skyscrapers in the foreground. Driving around in my minivan, I often exclaim to the kids, "LOOK! LOOK! WE LIVE IN SUCH A GORGEOUS CITY!!" Instead of guffawing at my uncool overenthusiasm as one would expect from a teen and 2 nearly-teen boys, they look out the car windows, and murmur, "yeah" or "mm-hmm", and I know they appreciate the enthralling views, too.

Here are four of our favorite places in Seattle:

1. Pacific Science Center 

Spend at least 2 hours here, and up to 5. Park in one of the multi-story garages adjacent to the Seattle Center, or find a cheaper, $4 to $6 lot a few blocks out. Set in a complex of connected buildings, some exhibits are permanent (butterfly dome, insects, water works for little tots, dinosaurs, giant hands-on physics tools, outdoor water spouts (see photo), weather station, mole rats, live demonstrations, and more), and some special exhibits visit for a few weeks.

In the last 12 months, we've visited a train show, and exhibitions of Lucy and hominids, animation, and life on Mars.  The latter exhibit is currently showing and there, my 11-year old boys made and launched foam rockets, instructed kids in another area via delayed audio, attempted to put bolts together wearing giant gloves, designed a robot maze, and created a stop-motion photo series.

On any day, there are a handful of 45 minute IMAX movies and we can see 1 or 2 in between visiting other displays in a single day. There are often full length feature movies, too. Tickets for movies can be purchased online.

A small cafe is upstairs from the dinosaur area, offering sandwiches, soup, (my kids say the best) corn dogs, nachos, popsicles, cookies, coffee, juice, soda, milk, and more. If you want more food choices, you can get a hand-stamp as you exit the Science Center, eat in the nearby Center House food court, and then return to the Science Center.  There are also full service restaurants surrounding the Seattle Center, including a favorite of our boys': Sport Restaurant, on 4th Avenue, across from the Space Needle, where they can watch football on the giant tvs.

2. Seattle Children's Theatre Don't be fooled by the word 'children'. This award-winning theater, located next to the Science Center, consistently wows kids and adults alike. It puts on multiple productions each year: some for tots and kindergartners, some for elementary school youngsters, and some for teens. Each play or musical indicates the recommended age. I've always looked forward to seeing the shows, and I've been extremely stunned at how they surpass my already high expectations each and every time. I truly wish we could attend more frequently.

3. Museum of Flight 

Located south of downtown Seattle, the museum near Boeing Field has free parking in the main parking lot and a free overflow lot across the street. Permanent exhibits include a young-kids' hands-on area that teaches flying concepts such as roll and yaw, display areas for WWI and WWII fighter planes, space exploration, a huge glass gallery full of airplanes, and an outdoor air park including an Air Force One and a Concorde that visitors can walk through.

My kids' favorite activity is the control tower where they look out over an actual runway and watch takeoffs and landings, listen to air traffic controllers, and operate some hands-on tools. We also enjoy the expansive gift shop with books, toys, models, calendars, caps, and more. Visiting exhibits we've seen include helicopters (see photo), Leonardo da Vinci, Space, and the annual Engineer and model show. And each August, we arrive early on a weekday when the Blue Angles visit Seattle. We bring lunch in a cooler, and wait for the times when the stunt planes take off and land on the runway near the museum parking lot. The engines' roar is incredible, the pilots take time to greet visitors, and special booths offer memorabilia. On our way home, we occasionally stop at the Boeing Store, which offers jackets, toys, pens, hats, and other items for flight enthusiasts of all ages.

4. Ballard Locks  Our family loves engineering marvels, and so, a short jaunt to the Ballard Locks, a few minutes' drive from downtown Seattle, is always satisfying. Click on this VirtualTourist.com link for some wonderful descriptions of how to get there and what to see and nearby places to eat. There is free parking on both sides of the locks, and grassy hills with paths down to the waterside. It is fun to walk across when the gates are closed, and watch boats enter and tie up, listen to the bells signaling that the gates will open or close, and witness the boaters' camaraderie amongst each other and with the locks' attendants and observers as they position their craft, wait for the water level change, and then untie and cruise on out of the locks. Friendly waving and smiles abound. On the south end, you can descend into a salmon ladder viewing area and learn all about their efforts to swim upstream.

Enjoy our home city!

Sandy Nielsen
Sleeps5.com

Finding Vancouver Travel Deals

If you watched the Olympics and want to see the beauty and experience the hospitality of Vancouver yourself, here are some travel experts to tell you how:

Vancouver beckons with Post-Olympics deals
TOM PARSONS BEST FARES, from Dallas News
www.bestfares.com

Tourism Vancouver

Vancouver.com

Expedia: Vancouver travel deals and more

Sandy Nielsen
Sleeps5.com

Seattle to Vancouver Olympics Day Trip: Cheap and Quick

Inspired by Holly (see the previous blog post), who went to Vancouver from Seattle in one day with her husband and son, we decided to make the trek, too. We are definitely not naturally spontaneous people, so this was out of our comfort zone. I tentatively thought Thursday might work best for us, and on Wednesday gathered lots of good advice on TripAdvisor. That evening we decided we'd do it!

Late Wednesday night my husband and I both sent emails to our employers (good thing we are both working contract, part-time jobs right now!) saying we would not be available, and phoned the kids' schools, leaving messages on the attendance lines that they would be absent. By the front door, we placed umbrellas, blankets, clipboards so the kids could do some school work in the car, spare Canadian money left over from prior trips, and passports.

The next morning, we were in the car by 7am, an hour later than we'd hoped, but typical for our family. Not surprisingly, our teenager slept much of the way there and back.

We stopped in Birch Bay at an Olympics store and I bought a fairly loud USA cloth shopping bag, and one son bought a hat. We wanted to represent our country in these small ways!

There was no wait at the border, we drove right up to the booth! Continuing on to the River Rock Casino in Richmond, we entered the multi-story parking garage, and noted fluff scattered on the ground due to those patriotic country flags people have fastened out of the car window scraping gouges in the low-ceiling insulation.

Memorizing our parking spot number, we entered the building and paid the $2 parking fee with our credit card at a machine. We walked over a plush skybridge, into the plush lobby, and down a CURVED escalator that prompted a photo-taking moment, used the very clean, tiled restroom, bought snacks, then back over the skybridge to the Skytrain station right off the parking garage.

Hubby Kurt easily figured out how to buy one-way tickets (under $4 Canadian, each) at the machine, then we each inserted our tickets to be validated, and hopped aboard. Already, some people had to stand, and as the train stopped, it got more crowded. We heard a German conversation, and a French conversation. The mood of the crowd was light, upbeat, anticipatory, and friendly.

We disembarked at the waterfront, and found multiple official, name-badged information attendants on every block, ready to give directions and distributing large street maps left and right. Sides of buildings had large screens with tv coverage of the Olympic events.

Here I am with my 3 boys, on our way to see the flames in person! (hubby was taking the picture)

Near the cauldron, two attendants, each seated like beach lifeguards atop platforms with an umbrella, used megaphones to state in English and French, the directions to the line in order to walk up the platform to see an unobstructed view of the flames. At sidewalk level, there was a plexiglass panel with chain link fence above it through which we could see the cauldron.

Everyone was posing for pictures everywhere, and trying not to cross in front of photos being taken. I offered to take the pictures for a couple of people, using their camera, so they can have shots with their friend.

We got in the back of the cauldron platform line, which moved in stages every 15 minutes or so. People were very polite except somehow this obnoxious family, draped in Canadian flags, and joking loudly about drinking, stepped in line a few groups ahead of us. We never did figure out if someone was holding a place for them or if everyone else was just too shocked and wimpy to say anything. Oh well, I don't want to spend any time being aggravated about others' rude behavior. After 45 minutes we made it to the top, just as the wind kicked up and a few sprinkles fell, and hubby took way too long taking way too many photos - the official had to tell him to keep moving along! I was surprised to feel the heat from the flames from so far away.

Here's the view from the top:

As in my description of the Canada Place food choices on Sleeps5.com, we again found the food court directly across the street VERY crowded, but the Sinclair Centre food court, at the corner of Hastings and Howe, quite manageable with tables and chairs available. We had lunch of burgers and fish and chips and then walked the city, marveling at the joyous mood of pedestrians, the buoyancy of store clerks, the multitude of Canadian flags hanging out of windows, along with a few of other countries, the colorful face paintings and clothing of fans, and the occasional chanting of groups.

A few blocks away, we found the Olympic countdown clock and a very polite line, seemingly impromptu, of people waiting to sit in the bobsled to take a photo. We witnessed a very long line and figured it was people waiting to try the zip line two at a time high above the square full of folks watching the ice skaters and listening to live music. An elderly Canadian woman, arm-in-arm with a friend, stopped me, confirmed that I was from the United States, then gave each of us a new Olympics Canadian coin! She seemed excited to see everything and the pair blended into the crowd before I could take their picture.

With pre-teens and a teenager all very interested in tech stuff, we walked to Yale Town, through the Yahoo center, and into the Samsung and Acer tents set up with hands-on viewers, computers, and tvs. With pulsing music and moving lights, the tents were essentialy big product commercials, but still very exciting. The Coke tent's line was hours long we heard. The open square had a stage and humongous screens showing the mountain events going on. We bought beverages and headed for the very high, very long bridge to Granville Island. There were country flag decals along the bridge's sidewalk. Good thing I brought our little flag book to confirm their identification!

Here is the view from the bridge.

Our teenager spent 5 minutes meeting some friends who live in Vancouver. It's all the time we had. Near a display showing an overview of the athlete's housing that is blocked from public access, we were guided along by friendly attendants, and took a free, brand-new streetcar to the Skytrain station. There, we again used a machine to purchase new one-way tickets for each of us, and rode back to the parking garage at the Bridgeport station at the River Rock Casino.

So glad to be seated in the car - our legs and feet were so tired! A little while later, we again drove right up to the border booth, reentered the US, stopped at Dairy Queen for dinner, and were home by 7:00pm. The entire trip, including food, public transportation, parking, and gas, was under $150. I am still amazed at the details - the signage, the attendants helping everywhere, the positive energy of the residents and the tourists alike.

Later that night, my hubby and I put our hands on each other's shoulders and exclaimed, "We did it!"

My Olympic Moment

The beauty of living in Seattle, when the Olympics are going on in Vancouver, is that you can get a wild hair idea on Saturday night which results in an early morning race for the border.  Olympics here we come.  I love Canadians -- even the border patrol seemed happy to see us.  First stop was at the Richmond visitor center to get the lay of the land.  We had five people helping us at once--Canadians are enthusiastic hosts.  Next stop River Rock Casino--just for parking, this was a family trip after all.  We weren't sure if the machines took atm cards and being the silly US Americans we are, we had no Canadian money with us.  The result was an Olympics volunteer gave us 2 Canadian dollars for parking. Again, very gracious hosts. We caught the light rail from there straight to the waterfront; a few steps later we were looking at the Olympic cauldron albeit through a chain length fence.  We waited in the viewing platform line for 45 pleasant minutes talking to our new Canadian friends, school teachers from Northern Vancouver. Lovely folks. Lovely view over the bay with the mountains in the background.  Then from there on out we walked around town with what seemed like the entire country of Canada within a few blocks' radius wearing red maple leaves.  Granville and Robson streets have been closed to automotive traffic creating a party-like atmosphere.  There was just a general sense of celebration and joy.  Accents from all over the world could be heard.  The sun was sparkling off of the water and buildings; people were flying across zip lines over our heads; Canadian mascots were seen patting small children on the head.  There was an underground ice skating rink full of children.  It was while watching this that I was interviewed by a local television station about my Olympic experience.  What a kick.  We headed off to Yale town where we managed to get lost and then sorted out by the friendly fire department.  Music was playing live on the streets along the way.  We headed to the Live City Olympic venue where the sporting events were playing on a jumbo screen; different sponsors had various interactive venues to visit.  I am now all up to speed on the latest 3D television technology!  My son had a bison burger at the taste of Canada booth.  My husband and I went for the, more familiar to a Seattleite, Humbow (pork dumpling) at the bite of Asia.  After that we walked along the waterfront passing a long line of inukshuk.  These are rock stacks that, I believe, orginate from the Inuit communities in Canada.  Then we headed to the Hockey arena to watch the US and Canadian fans stream in to watch the men's hockey game.   Lots of hoopla, horns, cowbells.  Later we checked out other cultural venues then headed for a pub to watch the game.  As it turns out it is fine for kids to be in the pub with their parents, unlike in the US.  So in the Gotham bar we watched the game--keeping a very low profile--since team USA ended up winning.  After we slunk out of there, we headed back to the cauldron for an evening shot of the flame and the Olympic rings on the water.  Beautiful!  Then back across the border and home to Seattle.  A spectacular day in Vancouver.

Holly Jacobsen
Sleeps5.com